Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Nesterenko, Yevgeny (Yevgen'yevich)

(b Moscow, 8 Jan 1938). Russian bass. He studied in Leningrad, making his début at the Malïy Theatre in 1962 as Gremin. He sang there and at the Kirov until 1971, when he joined the Bol'shoy; his roles include Dosifey, Khan Konchak, Ruslan, Kutuzov, Salieri and Boris, in which role he made his débuts with the Bol'shoy at La Scala (1973), the Vienna Staatsoper (1974) and the Metropolitan (1975). He made his Covent Garden début in 1978 as Don Basilio, later singing Ivan Khovansky (1982) and Méphistophélès (1983). At La Scala his roles included Massimiliano (I masnadieri), Rossini’s Mosè, Colline, the Grand Inquisitor and Philip II, which he also sang at Munich, San Francisco, Savonlinna and Orange (1990). He sang Zaccaria (Nabucco) and Attila at Barcelona (1984) and Bartók’s Bluebeard at Budapest (1988), a role he recorded successfully. On the concert platform he is noted for his interpretations of Musorgsky and Shostakovich, and has made much-admired recordings of the latter’s Fourteenth Symphony and Suite (op.145) on poems of Michelangelo. His voice has a typically Russian timbre, full and resonant, and he is a powerful actor. Nesterenko has written a book, Razmïshleniya o professii (‘Thoughts on my Profession’, Moscow, 1985), and has been involved in a complete edition of Musorgsky’s works. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory, 1975–93, and in 1993 was appointed to the Vienna Conservatory.

ALAN BLYTH

Nestorian rite, music of the.

See Syrian church music.

Nestroy, Johann Nepomuk (Eduard Ambrosius)

(b Vienna, 7 Dec 1801; d Graz, 25 May 1862). Austrian playwright, actor, director and singer. He studied law at the University of Vienna (1817–22), but left without a degree in order to devote himself to singing. At the age of 17 he had sung solo bass in a public performance of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, and on 24 August 1822 he made his début as Sarastro at the Court Opera (Kärntnertortheater). He was a member of the company until August 1823, singing ten roles in works by Paer, Rossini, Grétry, Gyrowetz and others, including Don Fernando in Fidelio. He then joined the German Theatre at Amsterdam, where in two years he built up his repertory to include Kaspar and Ottokar in Der Freischütz, Publius (and later Annius) in La clemenza di Tito, Masetto (and later Don Giovanni), Papageno, Pizarro, Adam in Schenk’s Der Dorfbarbier, and numerous Rossini roles. Towards the end of his Dutch engagement comic character parts begin to figure prominently, a tendency increasingly marked during his Wanderjahre (1825–31) as actor and singer at Brno, Graz, Pressburg (Bratislava), Klagenfurt, Vienna and Lemberg (L'viv). He joined Karl Carl’s Theater an der Wien in the autumn of 1831, by when he had played 450 different parts. Although he occasionally sang Adam until near the end of his life, and throughout his career nearly all his roles included songs, he had discovered his métier as a comic actor well before he resettled in Vienna; and he had also tried his hand as dramatist.

Nestroy was the last and greatest figure in the long line of Viennese popular actor-dramatists; his repertory included both traditional personae from the mid- and late 18th century (Kasperl, and Singspiel comic basses) and Offenbach roles when, late in his career, he helped introduce the Parisian operetta to Vienna. His most characteristic parts, however, are those he wrote for himself in his own plays, over 80 in all (in his whole career he played no fewer than 880 different parts). He was a brilliant satirist, and among his most successful stage works are parodies of Isouard’s Cendrillon and Rossini’s Cenerentola (Nagerl und Handschuh, 1832, music by Adolf Müller), Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable (Robert der Teuxel, 1833, music by Müller), and Tannhäuser (1857, music by Karl Binder); the Lohengrin parody (1859, music by Binder) was only moderately successful, and the parodies of Zampa (1832) and Martha (1848) were failures. During most of his career Nestroy recalled his youthful operatic experiences, incorporating witty allusions and quotations in his quodlibets and often referring in more or less disparaging terms to the world of opera.

Music played a very important part in Nestroy’s plays. Until Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt of 1841, his 43rd play, the average number of songs, ensembles and choruses is ten or 11, plus instrumental numbers. His next, Posse, Einen Jux will er sich machen of less than four months later, has a mere three songs, all intended for Nestroy himself. With the exception of the later operatic parodies and his very last stage work, Häuptling Abendwind (1862; an adaptation of Vent du soir, given with Offenbach’s original music), he limited the use of song in his plays almost entirely to his own roles, eliminating choruses and ensemble finales. The reason is not clear – neither professional jealousy nor economic considerations were responsible, and it is probably most likely that the change was due to a desire to restrict vocal music to the critical, equivocal couplets that he wrote for his own roles.

Adolf Müller wrote the music for 41 of Nestroy’s plays between 1832 and 1847, including Lumpacivagabundus (1833), Der Talisman (1840), Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt (1841), Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842) and Der Zerrissene (1844). Michael Hebenstreit wrote the music for ten Nestroy plays from 1843 to 1850, including Die schlimmen Buben in der Schule (1847) and Freiheit in Krähwinkel (1848); Carl Binder for seven (1851–9); C.F. Stenzel for three; Franz Roser for two; A. Scutta and A.M. Storch for one each. Authorship of some of the lost scores is disputed. For performance outside Austria new scores were sometimes provided, e.g. by Lortzing for Der Zerrissene, and songs for Lumpacivagabundus and Einen Jux will er sich machen. 20th-century operatic adaptations of Nestroy’s plays include Sutermeister’s Titus Feuerfuchs (1958, based on Der Talisman) and von Einem’s Der Zerrissene (1964). The new historical-critical edition contains reductions of the original music of all the plays, including Binder’s music for the Tannhäuser parody.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

WurzbachL

M. Necker: ‘Johann Nestroy: eine biographisch-kritische Skizze’, Johann Nestroy’s gesammelte Werke, ed. V. Chiavacci and L. Ganghofer, xii (Stuttgart, 1891), 95–218

O. Rommel: ‘Johann Nestroy: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wiener Volkskomik’, J. Nestroy: Sämtliche Werke, ed. F. Brukner and O. Rommel, xv (Vienna, 1930), 1–357

F. Brukner, ed.: Johann Nestroy’s Gesammelte Briefe (1831–1862): Nestroy und seine Bühne im Jahre 1848 (Vienna, 1938)

O. Rommel: ‘Johann Nestroy, der Satiriker auf der Altwiener Komödienbühne’, Johann Nestroy: Gesammelte Werke, i (Vienna, 1948/R), 1–193

E. Hilmar: ‘Die Nestroy-Vertonungen in den Wiener Sammlungen’, Maske und Kothurn, xviii (1972), 38–98

W.E. Yates: Nestroy: Satire and Parody in Viennese Popular Comedy (Cambridge, 1972)

L.V. Harding: The Dramatic Art of Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nestroy: a Critical Study (The Hague, 1974)

J. Nestroy: Sämtliche Werke: historisch-kritische Ausgabe, ed. J. Hein and others (Vienna, 1977–)

Nestroyana [Journal of the International Nestroy-Gesellschaft] (Vienna, 1979–)

J. Hein: Johann Nestroy (Stuttgart, 1990)

W.E. Yates: Nestroy and the Critics (Colombia, SC, 1994)

PETER BRANSCOMBE